Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1â3 above.)

Narrative

1 minutes

Introduction

4 minutes

This lesson brings to a close the book study on Stuart Little. During the introduction, we explore common themes present in the book (i.e., friendship, loyalty, perseverance, etc.) and students explain why they say those themes are present. With Common Core aligned lessons, it is important to have a balance of both literary and non-fiction, informational text. This unit focused on literature of a children's classic book.

Constructed Response

50 minutes

Students write a 5 paragraph constructed response to summarize the book Stuart Little as the culminating writing assessment for the unit on Stuart Little. They also write a new ending to the story in their 5 paragraph paper. (See attached Powerpoint slide which may be displayed on a Smartboard.) I chose this as a writing activity in order to provide students an opportunity to strengthen their writing as they recall relevant information and use their imagination to create a new ending to the story. In this constructed response assignment, students begin the task with informative writing by simply summarizing the book Stuart Little. The second portion of the task calls for students to use their narrative writing skills in order to write a difference ending to the story.

Stuart Little CRA Prompt.pptx

Closure

This unit on Stuart Little was aligned to CCSS because the variety of assignments focused my students' efforts on key ideas and details by using multiple lessons for support discourse and questioning using text-based questions. Craft and structure was highlighted in the unit through the use of Tier 2 vocabulary. The integration of knowledge and ideas was done through the writing and illustration of the missing person's report for Margalo, the role play and interview of Stuart, character analysis, sequencing of events, and summarizing the text. To close the lesson, students give a thumbs up or a thumbs down as to why they liked or disliked the book Stuart Little and briefly tell why.